RiverWay Clinic opens new Anoka facility

Giant portraits of native wildflowers and grasses, evergreens and sparkling lakes and rivers adorn waiting areas, and plush seating cradles people waiting to see the doctor.

With input from patients, community members and health care professionals, the new clinic was intentionally designed with elements thought to provide a calm environment.

“The facility was designed for a better experience for patients. We wanted to create a more calm environment that can reduce the anxiety many people feel (when coming to the doctor),” said Bob Van Why, senior vice president of primary care for HealthPartners.

“By incorporating and highlighting the nature theme, we hoped to provide that calming influence.”

The new clinic, which replaces the Monroe Street facility, opened its doors to the community with a grand opening celebration Sept. 12. Staff began seeing patients in the new building Sept. 16.

During the grand opening, hundreds of folks stopped by and toured the building, spoke to nurses, doctors and other caregivers and learned about the expanded clinic services offered there.

The new RiverWay Clinic – nearly twice the size of the old one – offers care for the entire family, including family medicine, internal medicine, ob-gyn, pediatrics and several specialties.

The second level of the 60,000 square-foot clinic houses specialists in chiropractic care, gastroenterology and occupational medicine as well as lab and imaging, on-site mammography and colonoscopy screenings, ultrasound and infusion therapy.

The new RiverWay Clinic represents the latest evolution of health care provided to residents of Anoka and the surrounding area.

The seeds of the new RiverWay were planted back in 1931 when Frank and Harold Mork opened Mork Clinic, on Second Avenue just off Main Street, Anoka.

Twenty years later, they broke ground on Monroe Street, expanding the Mork Clinic facility and deepening their roots in Anoka.

After building expansions and developing an affiliation with GroupHealth in the 1980s, Mork Clinic was eventually sold to Group Health in the mid-1990s. And then, on Jan. 1, 2000, the clinic officially became HealthPartners’ RiverWay Clinic.

Today, Van Why said that 14 new physicians and 35 additional staff members have been added to personnel attending patients at the new RiverWay Clinic.

Located just off Highway 10 on the site of the old Castle Field baseball complex, the new RiverWay Clinic will also house Anoka’s first urgent care facility.

Before this facility opened, the nearest evening and weekend care options for area residents were urgent care clinics in Andover and Elk River or Mercy Hospital’s emergency department in Coon Rapids, said Van Why.

He described the “one-stop” care provided at Anoka’s new RiverWay Clinic.

“We’re trying to make care more accessible, more one-stop,” Van Why said. “Physicians in all kinds of specialties work together to take care of you, give you a better, wholly complete experience in one place.”

That one-stop care includes pharmaceutical care as Goodrich Pharmacy – which has been serving patients in Anoka for more than 130 years – has moved from its Monroe Street building next to the old RiverWay to an on-site pharmacy inside the new RiverWay Clinic.

Goodrich pharmacist Willie Wimmer, whose dad, Bill Wimmer, was a partnering owner of Goodrich Pharmacy back in its earlier days, said he and his staff are thrilled to carry on the tradition of family care for patients as they have for so many years.

“It feels like family and we are family so it just feels right to provide on-site care in the new clinic,” he said.

Patients do not need to have HealthPartners insurance to visit RiverWay Clinic-Anoka or the urgent care facility located there.

HealthPartners’ RiverWay Clinic-Anoka is open 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday with urgent care available Monday through Friday evenings from 5-9 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

To schedule an appointment, call 763-587-4400, or utilize online appointment scheduling and lab results available at HealthPartners.com or with the myHP mobile app.

Hundreds of people stopped by the new HealthPartners RiverWay Clinic during a grand opening event at the new Anoka facility Sept. 12. Here, dozens of people stood in line for free flu shots offered by medical personnel stationed outside the building. Photos by Sue Austreng